Dark Paradise
by ChasingtheDreams
Summary: Based on the song Dark Paradise by Lana Del Rey. Ever since Cato's death Clove has a hard time survive these nightmares... [cato/clove one shot]


_All my friends ask me why I stay strong  
Tell 'em when you find true love, it lives on  
That's why I stay here  
_- Dark Paradise, Lana Del Rey

* * *

_Maybe everything would have been better if I had gone with Cato to look for Thresh, she tells herself. Why, oh why, did he have to get killed?_

Clove buries her head in her knees. Soft light reflects off the brown tangles that tumble in slight waves over her trembling shoulders. Her strong figure is curled over Cato, like a china doll that has fallen too many times she feels broken. She looks up and sees Thresh running away from Cato's cold, dead body.

Clove did everything in her radiant power to keep Cato safe from the death of The Hunger Games. In the end, though, there was nothing, _absolutely nothing, _that she could have done. No one is ever safe. Clove did all she could, she was ready to kill herself to know he would live, but of course, it's too late. Clove screams and kicks. Cato's body being raised from the arena by the hovercraft. She cries and eventually faints of exhaustion, stress, and tiredness.

* * *

Clove wakes up to the sun shining through the grimy window that hasn't been washed since before her winning Games. She looks around to see the room she woke up in this time. Cato's bedroom. Clove looks in her hands, and sees one of his coats in her hands, the one he wore when he found her.

She remembers him smirking and impressing her with swords. Clove remembers how she cut him with her knife, and got enrolled into the training center with him. _Cato was so much braver than me. I can see that now_. Clove thinks to herself. She is disgusted of how she tortures herself. Draging herself into her dead fiance's room, go into his clothes, and bring back memories, brings fresh pain to her.

She carefully puts the warm, worn out coat back in the closet, and tells her body to get up. Of course, her body doesn't listen. Clove doesn't know why she even calls it her own body anymore. It never listens to her and with all the cuts from her torments look more like a dead body than an alive one. Finally, after much persuasion and hard work, her legs and arms respond and they help her get her weight off the bed to stand up. she shuffles towards the kitchen, ignoring all the thoughts, and memories of Cato swirling in what is her brain, but what she calls a nuisance. I look at the clock sitting on the small table in the kitchen table. it reads 05:07am. Late, considering when she usually gets up. She forces some food down her throat, and attends to her personal needs before shutting down her mind and body, and falling into a restless sleep again. Clove goes into the cuboard, only to find bread on the shelves. Bread? Blaize. Clove glances around automatically, but knowing she's not here she gets the bread and eats it all. _How did Blaize know I was sleeping in Cato's room today? It must be obvious._ Clove thinks while she rips off a piece of the warm loaf, crams it in her mouth, and walks back to the living room. Deciding that it's early enough to fall back asleep she lays down on the couch and falls into dreams of Mutts, The hunger Games, and visions of a handsome face with a strong body, and great with swords.

* * *

_I hear a girl scream. It could have been me though. I open my eyes and see him. Cato. Cato Larek. Standing by me. Protecting me from the horrors of the Capitol. With him, I'm safe. He's here, and he'll protect me. As he always has…_

* * *

Clove has been having bad dreams ever since she won The Hunger Games and Cato was killed by Thresh. Blaize, her sister, has been sleeping with her on the sofa in Clove's room because she is worried about Clove's nightmares. Clove takes a shower and eats more breakfast this morning. Its torture for her. Every dream is a wonderful nightmare, a bad dream she doesn't want to leave. It makes her head hurt, evn when she closes her eyes, it hurts.

Clove wakes up in the late afternoon. She looks around for Cato. "No," she tells herself. "He's not here. He's dead. It was just a dream." she swings her legs over the side of the couch, and makes her way to the kitchen. Blaize's here, and she's making something on the stove that makes Clove's stomach remind her that it wants food.

"Well, hello sis, I saw you were sleeping peacefully and didn't wake you. Dinner'll be ready in a moment. Just set yourself down and I'll serve you some."

Clove sits down at the small breakfast table in the kitchen. It's just me and Blaize.

Clove closes her eyes again. She can see his face again. Clove ignores the pain in her head,she just keeps her eyes shut and stares at his beautiful face. "Cato...I love you..." Clove whispers quietly enough so that Blaize doesn't hear.

After eating she goes up to her room and goes into bed. Cloves not tired enough to fall asleep so instead she just closes her eyes and thinks of Cato.

_Every time I close my eyes_  
_It's like a dark paradise_  
_No one compares to you_  
_I'm scared that you won't be waiting on the other side_

_And there's no remedy for memory your face is_  
_Like a melody, it won't leave my head_  
_Your soul is haunting me and telling me_  
_That everything is fine_  
_But I wish I was dead_


End file.
